James 4:3 You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.
John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
Yeshua (Jesus) asked this man “Do you want to be made well?” Of course, he did! Wouldn’t you? Why did Jesus ask a question like this when its answer was so clearly obvious? It seems the Lord wanted to hear him verbalize his need.
In the biography of George Mueller, a strong man of God who established orphanages throughout England in the 1800’s and raised the kids up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, this amazing Saint relied upon God for every single need that he faced without making any financial appeals. He laid before the Lord every aspect of these orphanages. He prayed for the locations, the buildings, the furniture to fill them, the workers to run them, and everything else he could think of. When the first orphanage was ready, Mueller realized one major thing was lacking — orphans!! He forgot to ask the Lord to provide the orphans!
Sometimes the obvious things just smack us in the face, don’t they? On several occasions, I’ve found myself in this very position! Silly me — I forgot to ask!
The Lord is asking us today, “Do you want to be made well?” Whether it be physical healing, spiritual, emotional or financial healing, no thing is too great or too small for our Lord! Perhaps we’ve just forgotten to ask Him!
George Mueller was a great spiritual inspiration of my faith life. I do remember once my uncle said about an instance, how GOD answered the prayer of George Mueller.
His cook reported to George Mueller that there is no milk for the breakfast. He replied, GOD will provide, simply put the plates for breakfast. He went to pray and slept. Early morning, there was a knock at the door of the Orphanage. When the door was opened, the city milk delivery person said that the rear axle of the milk cart is broken, if they want milk, bring the containers; else the milk will be poured to the street. The orphanage had a problem to get all the big containers. Was it co-incidence or divine delivery?